Rules & carbon

Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation, launched on 1 October 2018 by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is the scheme under which oil marketing companies invite entrepreneurs to set up CBG plants and guarantee offtake. Its headline aim was 5,000 CBG plants.

Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan began in 2018 as a Swachh Bharat waste-to-energy programme. It was consolidated by Cabinet approval on 6 August 2026 into a National Circular Bioenergy Scheme under MoPNG, with a 23,731 crore rupee outlay aimed at a near ten-fold rise in CBG output.

It is the National Unified Scheme for Compressed Biogas, approved on 6 August 2026 with a 23,731 crore rupee outlay running FY2026-27 to FY2035-36, consolidating the CBG ecosystem under one ministry. It bundles assured offtake, an administered price, capital assistance, pipeline connectivity and credit support into a single decade-long framework.

As of 6 August 2026 the GOBARdhan portal recorded 1,908 registered CBG and Bio-CNG plants, of which 217 were commissioned - producing 0.4 MMSCMD - with 339 under construction. Registered and commissioned are very different numbers and must never be conflated.

SATAT's original aspiration was 5,000 CBG plants. Actual commissioned plants - 217 as of mid-2026 - remain a small fraction of it, so it is a target rather than achieved capacity, and should be modelled against commissioning trends rather than quoted as a fleet size.

Yes, and the main benefit is not the fuel switch - it is avoiding methane that manure and organic waste would otherwise release, on top of displacing fossil gas or diesel. Because methane is a potent greenhouse gas, capturing it is where most of the value sits. Plant-level claims should still be measured and verified rather than assumed.

Avoidance credits represent emissions prevented against a baseline - methane not released, fossil fuel not burned. Removal credits represent carbon durably taken out of the atmosphere, such as biochar. They are different asset classes, they price roughly 10-20 times apart, and they must never be added together.

Yes - Europe, and especially Germany and Denmark, has a mature biomethane sector. The IEA's 2025 Outlook for Biogas and Biomethane puts today's sustainable production potential for biogases at nearly 1,000 bcme, equivalent to a quarter of global natural gas demand.

Under REPowerEU the EU targets 35 bcm - about 350 TWh - of annual biomethane production by 2030, against roughly 3 bcm produced today, backed by an estimated 37 billion euro investment need. It is an ambition comparable in scale, and in evidence gap, to India's CBG push.

Thai farmers have cultivated Napier for over 30 years, with more than 130 varieties, giving a real-world evidence base for Napier-based biogas that India's young sector simply does not have. Their experience underlines variety selection, harvest-age discipline and multi-season yield data as the things that decide outcomes.